Champions League sections are never easy so we are as well having one which is unequivocally difficult on paper. Despite finishing second from pot 4 in their group last season (a remarkable achievement), Celtic spent the vast majority of their time in the tournament under pressure. They had possession less than their opponents in all six group games, so although we were successful in the group stage, there should be no doubt as the the size of the challenge.
Conversely, we looked Juventus in the eye, which, in retrospect, could be regarded as over ambitious.
When Martin O’Neill’s Celtic drew Barcelona and Milan in the group section of the Champions League the manager was clearly exasperated at the apparently preposterous task. It was Martin’s last throw in the competition and he was anxious to break into the knockout stage for the first time.
The mood music seems different this time. Neil Lennon has been to the knockout stage already so the pressure to breakthrough is not there. Celtic can take one game at a time without the burden of having to prove themselves in this competition. They are now a part of this league, they might not win it, but they can compete with anyone.
We will be second favourites for each game, which is surely the way we would all prefer it to be. Despite what happened last year, even Barca will expect to comfortably overcome Celtic. Surely we can’t be as organised again?
Don’t bet against it.
STV painted an interest picture of the SFA this morning. The Association declined advice from Uefa to come into line with most of Europe (including England, crucially for many Scottish clubs) and extend the transfer window until the first business day of the week.
Doing so, however, would make a mockery of their suspension of Rangers International’s transfer embargo, which expires on 31 August. To accept Uefa’s advice would draw attention to their oversight in not noticing that August ends on a weekend.
We all know this to be the case, but the Association would rather ignore their mistake than help out member clubs and draw attention to it.
Even Jim Farry checked the calendar.
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good afternoon cqn
well first the good bit,a brilliant night on Wednesday,dont go that often golf fees im afraid,god i pick them,Barcelona,another night I will never forget,great time to be a celtic fan long may it continue
now the bad bit,what will the cheekie chappie,do at his love in with the scottish press today,shuffle papers,wanting names,interested in getting Lionel Messi on a free,
deffinately it is all very good,long may it continue
Sydney b4 ye get carried away Gordon Strachan is a legend.
Celtic are in the CL again, the big table. Player chose to leave us, more importantly players like Goergios Samaram, Joe Ledley , Efe Ambrose chose to stay and play in the hoops. LEGENDS. Players like Broonie (who I have had my moments with), James Forrest (who I had doubted his bravery, no more) , Charlie Mulgrew , Chris Commons standing up for Celtic from home we have a very very good core of hoops . After the slaughter of the goats we need to stand up for the players we have. Did it ever occur to you that Neil Lennon is talking to you and every supporter who didn’t help him motivate his hoops, the players who have become Celtic supporters or who Lenny hopes to make into real supporters. You think he was talking about the CEO who has done his bit to bring Celtic to the top table. Enough of your shite mineshafter moanie minnie drama queen wailly wailly pathetic bleating. If you don’t like the product you can get cheaper tickets in Glasgow South. Big huddle. Stand up for the champions. : ) Yes had a good night up the ladder beer, vino and onto the water of life. Hail Hail .
Pukki, I am led to believe, we have been tracking for YEARS. Will be happy if he signs. I don’t think he IS a natural born goalscorer but he will be a very good player.
BJmac,
Cheers for the clarification
When the 3rd goal went in on Wed the explosion of noise was such that I could not here a thing, I just remember a moment in my life with my daughter in silent celebration that I will never forget.
Thank you celtic
Does that make sensecsc
Till later all
blantyretim is praying for the knox family
12:38 on 30 August, 2013
FGF.
Will see you at bmcuw bash I hope.
Sorry for the late reply , yes I’ll definitely be at BMCUWP day oot.
HH
Hear :(((
Where is the BMCUW bash? Is it he wan in Troon? Date, place and time if poss…
Kikinthenakas
Auldheid:
Rather than me asking you all these awkward questions do you think that maybe one day John Paul might engage the most active Celtic Supporters medium and we could all get our answers to our awkward questions from a professional employee?
Malone Bhoy in support of Wee Oscar
13:22 on
30 August, 2013
Pukki, I am led to believe, we have been tracking for YEARS
Correct. Peter Grant on BT sport at the Aberdeen game said he was on our radar when he was assistant to Tony Mowbray. That was over 3 years ago.
Embdae got John Paul Taylor’s email?
Wednesday night…. when the 3rd goal went in my phone disappeared about 20 feet down the stand after being airborne for a while, if the guy happens to look in here, thank you very much for handing it in at the bar.
HH
garcia lorca
Many thanks for your reply.
Oh, and that was a great post ……….and in my lifetime I hope.
Be interesting if someone actually asked the SFA why they were not for moving. Any decent journalists around……?
Well done celtic on champions league group prices.
Hope pukki signs, sounds like excellant player.
Anymore on a centre half or 2nd striker ?
I think we can get through this group ..would love us to sign finnbogasson. He would give us a real boost.
SFA … Incompetent ,inept and/ or crooked
Disgraceful performance … Again … When do we challenge them with purpose
Auldheid..,
I read a loaded argument, “do you think” to me, tries to mock of anyone who does think exactly that.
The point is ignored again, why do you think the CST need to ask for minimum wage for Celtic staff if the board are as caring as you believe ?
Trying to excuse it as unintended pressure IMO shows naievity of how private businesses and indeed most business is run, with all the published data on the increase of stress related illnesses through increased workloads due to staff reductions and lack of support from senior management seems to have escaped your notice and consideration when you put your argument together. The board are well known for their hardball approach it’s even bragged about on here, yet that typically hardball approach should be dismissed on the grounds that you don’t think they would do it intentionally, dispite the fact that they won’t even pay minimum wage, I think your on a trapeze here trying to justify that argument.
From the previous thread:
I have been a member of this forum since 12:02 today and I can offer two points: I hope that SydneyTim never has the misfortune to sit aside me at Celtic Park as there are too many “fans” with his attitude polluting the place with their utter negativity. Secondly Im disappointed that I see the need to justify my allegiance on an inclusive forum…..but I will.
Am I a hun? I sit in the Jock Stein, Area 139, Row GG, seat 11. Come up at the next home game and say hello to one of many Catholics who live in Larkhall that support our football club. I was a member of the Columba Club in Blantyre till I moved to Larkhall for family reasons in 2006 and went to Holy Cross in Hamilton.
And to think my wee boy naively said to me leaving Celtic Park on Wednesday night “Dad do you know why I love coming to Celtic Park? Because I come with you and because anybody is free to watch Celtic”. Some people should get a grip: The question shouldn’t even be asked of me if my post is read properly.
Canamalar,
Sad.
Your efforts deserve a better response.
I wonder if any of the many shareholders on the site would explain WHY they don’t support your bid to get answers.
Good Afternoon.
It was a rainy day in Dublin and there wasn’t much joy in O’Connell street so I said to the girls with me ( there were three of them ) ” Come on up here and I will show you a laugh!”.
Now, before you get the wrong impression, what I was referring to was a march up to the top of O’Connell Street, into Parnell Square where we were surrounded by history and literature.
At No 5 you have the birthplace of Oliver St John Gogarty, at No 25 is the headquarters of the Gaelic league where it was determined to have an uprising in 1916, No 46 was formerly the Headquarters of Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language league, this was the venue where Thomas MacDonagh assembled the 2nd Battalion the Sunday night on the eve of the 1916 Easter Rising.
No 29 – 30 Parnell Square – Formerly Vaughan’s Hotel; a favourite hiding and meeting place for freedom fighter Michael Collins,and No 58 Parnell Square wasThe Sinn Féin Bookshop and the offices of the An Phoblacht newspaper and at No 44 – The Kevin Barry memorial hall is the headquarters of Sinn Féin.
In the 1980’s, both the Sinn Fein Bookshop and the Headquarters were covered by more than a few cameras which were mounted all around just so that the Rozzers could keep and eye on who was coming and going.
As I hadn’t told the girls where we were going or what was inside these buildings, I paused at the door and told them all to turn round and wave at the cameras– just so the special branch could get a good look at us — then I announced why the cameras were there in the first place.
The bookshop was on the ground floor, but beyond that you could not get into the offices behind unless you were someone who was permitted — who gave you the permission and how they conveyed that to the staff on the ground floor remains a mystery.
Anyhow, we had a look around the book shop. There were some interesting publications there, though to my eye there was also some pretty rubbishy propaganda covering certain events in and around the six counties. This was stuff which you just classed as bollocks, to be honest, and simply dismissed as worthless rhetoric.
However, that did not take away from some other literary gems among which I was particularly taken by a post card which had nothing on it bar a cartoon.
The cartoon depicted two British soldiers complete with helmets and guns, and both were reading a list of names displayed on a poster. It read:
Joyce
Yeats
Synge
Beckett
Behan
Heaney
Kavanagh
O’Casey
Shaw
Sheridan
Wilde
and so on — I don’t think you ever saw the bottom of the list– and this was quite deliberate.
The caption in the cartoon had one soldier saying to the other as he looked down the list:
” So these will be the thick Irish Paddies we have come to keep in their place!”
————————————————————————————————————————-
St Stivs posted a link earlier to Tommy Makem reciting Seamus Heaney’s anthem for the croppies.
All of the Clancys were actors before they were singers, as indeed was Makem, and it was through their records that I first came to love the sound of a poem being recited by a magical voice.
Makem in particular, with his Armagh burr of a voice, could bring words to life, and give them meaning and force– and he did it so easily, without any effort.
However, no matter how good the voice first there had to be words — words that meant something, words that got you to stop, and listen, and read and think about what the poet was saying and trying to tell you.
Words that when spoken made you think it was you who were speaking, you who were delivering a message and a feeling and a mood instead of simply reading them off the page or listening to a message from someone else– delivered like the speaking clock or a speak you weight machine.
Seamus Heaney knew all about words — and he knew about life in Ireland, life in Derry, life in the six counties where at the time the news was filtered, fabricated and false.
When each general election would come around, all the main Westminster parties agreed that Northern Ireland would not be a political topic open for discussion on the television sets….. on the mainland!
Despite there being armoured cars and tanks and guns on the streets, outside Woolworths or Marks and Spencers or Dunne’s stores…. it was not a political topic!
Despite there being internment, Diplock courts, trials without juries, the use of the 5 techniques when detained without charge, and repeated convictions of the British Government at the European Court of Human Rights……… it was not a topic for political discussion……. on the mainland.
The news channels reported in wonder at the maiden speech of Bernadette Devlin MP when she looked at the Houses of Parliament and proclaimed that she was not there to complain about HOW that Parliament governed her country…… but about the very fact that it Governed at all………… but it was not a political topic for discussion at a general election……. on the mainland.
And when there were convictions for gerrymandering and rigging elections….. it was not a topic for political discussion on the mainland.
I was once told by a member of Strathclyde’s armed police unit, that there had been more violent deaths in Strathclyde than there had been in Northern Ireland throughout the troubles years…… yet there was no internment in Glasgow, or the suspension of jury trials!
And into this climate, and from it, came the words of Seamus Heaney…. talking of history and times past, talking of the events that occurred in the here and now, and talking about hope and vision and with an idea of……. if not THE future…… then A future for a people who screamed ” I live here too!”.
Heaney was always going to be an extraordinary man of literature…… but because he lived when and where he lived, he was destined to be ranked as among the giants of poetry who could stir the heart and soul…. and all….. with a pen and ink.
Place his words in the mouth of a Tommy Makem or another trained actor who can fill a room with those words and then you have a potent weapon……. a weapon that can never be silenced.
Earlier I posted Christy Moore’s wee poem—- on the mainland— about when Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature, The BBC pronounced it as having been won by ” A British Poet– from Londonderry”.
I have heard Christy extend that we poem to have the BBC voice question ” Or is it DerryLondon?” before he goes on to say ” Yez never claimed George Best nor Alex Higgins”!
Not long after posting it, I heard on the Radio right enough that ” Seamus Heaney, the award winning poet from Londonderry, had passed away at the age of 73!”.
I know a little about Radio presentation and production.
I know there is a prepared script for the presenter to read.
I know that whoever prepared the script has never read a Seamus Heaney Poem in their life, as if they had they would never come up with that description.
Heaney, never wasted a word, and never used a word when he meant to say something else, and of course his home city has long been simply Derry.
Words —- words are great things. They are tools, things of pleasure, weapons of destruction and can convey every emotion from love to hatred to wonder…. and Seamus Heaney was a master of words.
May his soul rest in peace, and if he believed in a God then I have no doubt that he is chewing the fat with Tommy Makem and all the others on the list in the cartoon ………. In London Heaven ( Copyright BBC ).
Jp
Every new blogger gets asked if he or she is a hun.
It is a right of passage..
Chill mate.. ad I said all the karkhall tims are great in my book.
Apologies for lowering the tone but an actual decent and now very embarrassed Hun has just told me that Sevco have invited the parents of Lee Rigby as special guests for the game tomorrow.
is their no step too low that they will go to to appeal to the lowest common denominator?
Larkhall tims even..
JP -it is the traditional welcome to the bhlog; don’t take it personally.
KK,
I am thinking of asking someone else to take over, I need to ask first, then ask all who have issued their details if its ok to pass on their information.
After last weeks accusations I firmly believe it is down to a personality issue.
Its been a busy few days so catching up.
I read Paul’s article on our strategy with great interest. I agree with nearly all of it. But there are a few things which bother me.
To repeat some of the most interesting bits.
“Is it without its risks? No.
Would Norwich and Southampton have waited or signed alternatives, leaving us with rapidly depreciating assets?
I’ve no idea, but these are the kind of factors which contribute to each decision.
We played a more ambitious hand. Strategy was adhered to, which looked a folly, to some, a week ago.
For the first time in 40 years we have a sustainable, successful, team development strategy, which is only just beginning to bear fruit. It is too tempting to take those fruits and blow them on the same strategy most of our UK-based peers do in an attempt to guarantee entry to the promised land.”
The thing that bother me is that we are now making out that the “strategy” that celtic followed in this transfer window was to deliberately risk failing to get into the CL by waiting until qualification happenned. However that doesnt make any sense. If we are going to spend money anyway then why wait?
I do agree with Celtic’s general approach and am actually supportive of it. But position selling Hooper before having a replacement was unnacceptable and that there is no getting away from that.
We got lucky – but relying on luck isnt very clever.
My reply to Paddy Power after being fobbed off with a generic reply:
This is still not acceptable! The tweet was gross misconduct and should have resulted in the dismissal of the person involved. Good luck with your business because the act of this one person has circulated around thousands of Celtic fans and normal decent people of moral standing who are closing their accounts as we speak. You will never get another penny from me or my family. I initially choose Paddy Power rather than the numerous other accounts on offer to support an Irish based firm. I shall show the same contempt and disregard to your firm as you have shown a true football great and an absolute gentleman, hang your heads in shame,
Shelbourne
JP
Hun? You nearly had me there. It was the Columba Club reference that did for you. No right minded Bhoy would admit to hanging out at BT’s 2nd home :¬)
Welcome.
JP, think that was a bit of fun earlier about being a hun. Don’t take offence.
Bob.
Point taken BT. I had no knowledge of rights of passage but its been said now I suppose :-)
So. This is the way Heaney starts the poem, quelling instantly the long (and tedious) academic debate about how to translate its opening word, Hwæt. He gets “so,” Heaney explains, from his Irish relations, whom he calls, in a previous poem and in the “introduction” to this one, “big voiced Scullions.” Why “big voiced”? Because, “when the men of the family spoke, the words they uttered came across with a weighty directness, phonetic units as separate and defined as the delph platters displayed on a dresser shelf.” In their mouths, a sentence like “we cut the corn today,” says Heaney, “took on immense dignity”; when whey opened a statement with “So,” the idiom operated “as an expression that obliterates all previous discourse and narrative, and ad the same time functions as an exclamation calling for immediate attention.” Heaney wanted, then, to make Beowulf speakable by one of his Scullion relatives; what he loved about the poem was “a kind of foursquareness about the utterance, a feeling of living inside a constantly indicative mood.”
my [small voiced] cousin says we should claim the great man of our own.
What annoys me about the transfer deadline for Scottish clubs is that it offers other clubs 43 hours to approach, unsettle and possibly buy one of our players with no chance of replacing him. Having read FF’s open ended comments this morning you do get a little bit concerned.
Quite a few posters wanted Celtic to keep Vic and Hoops till after the qualifiers, I can see their point. I also wonder what kind of abuse Neil would have got if either of them had played a stinker because their minds were elsewhere?
The draw is a belter.
I think, if we are going to get to the last 8, we will have to win this group. ;))
Wee Gordon is a stats man and he calculated that most goals in the CL come from set pieces. Wee Neil isnae daft.
There is, IMO, every chance we will finish top of the group as there is finishing bottom of it and….
…That makes for a sensational Champions League group.
Bring them all on.
6ft5in is the new 5ft6in and the big boys can play.
Boys don’t cry unless you are a Juventus goon.
Jp
Are you a………..och, forget it. Welcome aboard!
It doesn’t make sense to penalise all clubs because the SFA screwed up dealing with the Zombies. In any case the transfer ban on the Huns has been a joke. Personally, they should be allowed to sign who they like, the more the merrier. The sooner they will go bust. Maybe, they were the other club in for Bale.
Anton Rogan ………. right I’m off to a wedding and fully expect to read of our overnight £10M spending spree when I log on bleary eyed tomorrow -:)))))
JP
One doth protest a WEE BITTY too much me feels. :-)
Welcome to the blog that I rarely post on now-a-days but always peekaboo into daily.
HH
MWD